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Sarah Palin, Propagandist Extraordinaire

As early as 1937, the Institute of Propaganda Analysis was established as a means of combating propaganda and agitprop in America. Edward Filene established a set of seven key propaganda techniques that are used to present a particular agenda. Those techniques are highly powerful tools of persuasion, and even though it seems we should be able to recognize such obvious tactics of manipulation, they are still very much in use today. It is clear, when examining the speeches of Sarah Palin, that her mass popularity is due largely to her exploitation of raw emotion and unthinking patriotism. Such high passions, when stoked by political propagandistic rhetoric, can develop a huge following.

Filene’s seven techniques of propaganda are as follows:

Name Calling: Can be subtle, from politically charged negative connotations regarding policy; to outright overt slander. Such terms in American politics as ‘socialist’ can be seen as rather benign, to the highly inflammatory ‘terrorist.’

Glittering Generalities: Using desirable but vague terms, such as ‘freedom,’ ‘democracy,’ ‘Patriotism,’ ‘real.’ These terms have become meaningless in the ways they are deployed but have strong connotations of rightness and become impossible to argue against. Such statements as ‘do you love freedom?’ are ridiculous, but the converse can only be ‘no, we hate freedom’

Transfer: Transfer is the attachment of certain ideas and ideologies to other objects in order to borrow credence or affinity. In the past, such icons as the flag, home, apple pie have been used as fetish objects for America, but in recently history the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have become symbols of transference. We also now have ‘main street’ as a source of expertise.

Testimonial: Using spokespeople with certain authorities to provide testimony lends credence to an argument, even when that testimonial is irrelevant to the proposed position. For example, Palin aided the Republican ticket by bringing to it an association with working mothers. Her experiences as a working mother presented the Republican party with an avenue to a large number of conservative wives who may not have felt any attachment to John McCain. Her testimonial was a cynical attempt to appeal to a large voter demographic that the Republicans have often alienated.

Plain Folks: Invoking plain folks is a way that many politicians connect to ordinary voters. Politicians who may have been raised in elite backgrounds will often remove their suits and be seen wearing working class clothes or be photographed in working class environments in an attempt to be seen as representing folks from ordinary working environments.

Card Stacking: Often politicians will only present one side of an argument, perhaps exposing the flaws of an opponents policies, without addressing how these flaws can be fixed or how the opposing candidate would service such an issue. The republicans have spent a great deal of time attacking the Democratic health care reforms, without devoting any time to addressing the very real problems with the current health care system.

Band Wagon: The notion that ‘everyone’ agrees with certain policies and that the majority is right. Presenting certain belief systems as natural and desirable convinces that those who disagree are in the minority and are by their minority status, implicitly wrong.

While Sarah Palin is not a good orator at all, she has been well schooled by the Republican party in the art of propaganda, and it is clear that she has been groomed to naturally deploy classic propaganda techniques. She regularly, in all of her speeches, utilizes all seven of these techniques throughout both her campaign and currently in the teaparty meetings. From her statements that Obama ‘pals around with terrorists’ has ‘death panels’ and is a ‘socialist;’ her frequent use of meaningless but politically potent terms like ‘freedom,’ ‘real America’ and ‘grassroots;’ her use of symbols like her down home Alaska ‘main street’ to give her credibility as a spokesperson for average Americans; her testimonials from ‘real’ people like ‘Joe the Plumber;’ her constant allusions to herself as a plain ole’ hockey mom;’ her misrepresentations of Democratic policy (it was she who invented the health care ‘death panels’) ; and finally her constant attending of the Tea Parties and affirmations that this is a growing concern for real Americans. It is clear that Palin is using highly exploitative techniques to further her political agenda.

This can be seen very clearly in her recent closing keynote address at the Nashville Tea Party Convention, on February 06, 2010. By examining Palin’s address, we can see, using Palin’s own words, how she is indeed is a masterful propagandist.

Before she begins her speech, she states to the crowd ‘god bless you,’ reaffirming her allegiance to the Christian Right. Of course, this is a form of transference, borrowing authority from both God and the Christian institutions. Note, however, it is the generalized ‘god bless you’ so as not to alienate those of differing sects of Christianity. She never says ‘thanks to Jesus’ and never invokes different saints, which would identify her as belonging to a specific sect of Christianity. Instead, her invocation of god is an all encompassing, inclusive (generic and thereby meaningless) usage.

The first statement of her speech is ‘I’m so proud to be an American,’ again, a statement that in itself has no meaning, but can be interpreted as being opposed to Michelle Obama famously stating ‘for the first time, I’m really proud to be an American.’ Palin’s use of the phrase is a totally unqualified statement, implying that just being American is a source of pride and that one need not do anything to actively participate in that pride. This is another form of transference.

Her second statement is ‘Do you love your freedom?’ This, of course, is a glittering generality,’ a nonsense statement that has no meaning, but is ideologically powerfully loaded. The implication is that democrats are a threat to freedom, and that she is an arbiter of freedom. That those who attend the teaparty are freedom lovers, those who oppose the teaparty are by default, freedom haters.

Her next statement is to thank those who have, past or present, served their country in the armed forces. This is again, transference, taking support and implied testimonial from those who have fought in war. So far we are three statements into a speech, and she has managed to deploy five different instances of propaganda, and her speech has another 45 minutes remaining. She then, once again, states ‘I’m so proud to be an American.’

Finally, she states ‘Happy Birthday Ronald Regan (another instance of transference and an implicit endorsement given by a dead man), before starting her speech proper (we’re only a minute and nineteen seconds is, folks). She then goes on to make a joke about C-Span not being invited to attend closed door healthcare meetings, but she extends to C-span an invitation to the teaparty. This, of course, is the bandwagon approach, giving a sense that the teaparty is inclusive, and the site of ‘real’ American grassroots politics.

She then turns her attention to Nashville itself, stating she is happy to be there, the home of great barbecue and country music, establishing her affinity for plain folks and plain folk cultural product. She then announces that she is speaking out for common sense, conservative principles. Of course, the phrase common sense is a glittering generality.

She then states that America is ready for another revolution, and addressing the members of the teaparty itself, states that ‘you are a part of this,’ another example of bandwagon sentiment. She follows this up by stating she is so happy to see ‘real people’ involved in politics, not ‘inside the beltway politicos,’ again the invocation of both plain folk and another glittering generality.

Two minutes into her speech, and it becomes clear that every single statement made is carefully planned as ideologically loaded and is scripted line by line, to include some strategy of propaganda. Sarah Palin is not a smart woman, but she is a very dangerous woman because while having empty policies and no real direction for her campaign, she is skilled in deploying ideology and propaganda techniques. Sadly, while not actually having any policies, she is ultimately using empty language; language that is ideologically loaded but signifying nothing, displaying no policies or even denoted meaning, but designed to arouse emotion, patriotism and anger, but not to effect any kind of change, progressive or otherwise.

Sarah Palin is an empty signifier, telling us nothing, but whipping up emotion and directing that emotion toward political ends, and in the long term that is more deadly than any form of terrorism.

Yeah, I’m renewing my contract for another year. Don’t worry, I’ll try to fight off any more symptoms of malaise. =) I’m also going through the whole applying to grad school process, a process that has become more complicated thanks to your suggestion that I look into film studies. Perhaps you can give me some advice one of these days.

May I quote you for Mind Control: Propaganda in the 21st Century in a Research Project? I would like to use your link to the speech and your comments on her glittering generalities and use of propaganda.

Of course you can quote – as long as there is appropriate citation. I treat this as a resource, which is made available to the public to use as they feel appropriate.

But do be careful when using blogs and internet databases in research projects. Unless the blog is itself making citations, you have to treat all blogs as populist (that is, non-academic) sources.

Keep in mind that blogs are free, and tend to be opinion. While blogs are an investment in time, there is no adjudication panel or quality control, so blogs can often spread misinformation and factual errors.

Thank you very much, and for the advice on using sources. Being that you have a Ph.D, I take your opinion a little more seriously than others. Plus I intend to couch your quote as explaining academic opinion of Sara Palin, and her anti-intellectual rhetoric. I appreciate your explanation of the problems surrounding her use of propaganda in order to draw masses to her.

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